Different films within the thriller genre have different target audience and appeal to either a specific gender or age. From my research, I have discovered that it is mostly males that are the target audience for thrillers. However, that is not to say that females do not enjoy the genre. For the 1999 film "Fight Club", the IMDb's ratings show that males gave an average vote of 8.9/10, with females not far behind, rating it 8.7/10. 
The votes for "Pulp Fiction" (1994) on IMDb show that the highest ratings are from males under 18, at 9.4/10. This implies that the thriller genre is primarily aimed at teenage males who are willing to be shocked with violence and gore. This can be proven with the votes for females aged 45+, which came to a significantly less rating of 8.3/10. Yet the males are still the predominant target of this age group, with the ratings for females aged 45+ coming to 7.6/10. The voting figures for the 1976 thriller "Taxi Driver" show that males have 125,036 votes, and females only have 12,775. This demonstrates that it is mainly males who have watched this film.
However, the thriller genre has sub genres which all target different audiences depending on age or gender. A film like "The Silence of the Lambs", which portrays the vulnerabilty and strength of a woman in a profession that has mostly male employees, the FBI. This realistic and modern portrayl of women defies the general concept that females sould be the damsels in distress and a challenge for the male characters to rescue. It also shows in the viewer ratings on IMDb that there is an equal vote of 8.7/10 between male and females.
Overall, thrillers are predominantly aimed at young males, but the sub genres, such as a horror/thriller (mostly aimed at teenage girls, e.g. Twilight) allows for females to enjoy this type of film as much as the teenage boy does.
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